What is Going on!
by SuperNerd12
Summary: Lois and Clark are suspicious, confused and frustrated. Chloe's stuck in the middle playing mediator. Clois. Worked from show canon, post season 9, but maybe a bit AU.


9. 32 Am. Standing at his desk, Clark inclined his head and let out a slow frustrated sigh. Sirens, great, the day has just begun and he already had _two_ problems on his hands. He glanced around anxiously for someone to cover him. Lois hadn't turned up yet. She was taking this avoidance thing a little far if it was making her late for work. The kid awkwardly perched on his chair sensed his unease.

"Are you okay Mr Clark?" the small boy asked shyly, pulling at the hem of his shirt.

Clark listened again; he could hear her brisk steps echoing threateningly as they entered the foyer. Clark sighed again. He turned to his desk and pulled out some crayons and paper.

"I'm going to go get us some breakfast okay? I'll only be a few minutes, I promise. You stay right here and draw some pictures." He paused. "A really, uh, nice lady is coming in and she'll look after you alright? She sits right there" Clark tried his best reassuring smile and pointed at the desk across from them.

The kid leaned sideways and looked curiously at the desk. It was littered with coffee mug stains and screwed up balls of paper. The shiny black name plate read Lois Lane in pearly white lettering. He turned his small head up towards Clark and nodded silently.

Her discordant steps were getting slowly nearer. The sirens were suddenly followed by gunshots and screams. Clark looked nervously between the little boy, the entrance to the bullpen and back again.

"Tell Lois, the nice lady, I'll be back in 10 minutes." He rushed before jogging to the elevator and taking off.

The boy kept one hand on his shirt hem and chose a crayon with the other. He let his big eyes wander around the room. It was full of people and starting to get very noisy. He put his head down and dragged the green wax across the paper. A few seconds later the loud bang of the door startled him. He glanced up and saw an agitated looking woman march towards him. Only slightly alarmed, he returned to his drawing. He was used to flustered people coming and going. Mrs Richardson was always in a nervous hurry. He went unnoticed as the lady dumped her bag on Lois' chair, booted her computer and leaned across the desk; one hand supporting her and the other pressing against her temple.

Lois' day had begun horribly. Actually, horrible starts to the day were becoming a popular trend these last few weeks. She had slept through her alarm twice, run around so swiftly she'd made herself dizzy, lost her keys and couldn't even manage a quick coffee. Finally, over half an hour after she was supposed to start work she'd arrived at the Planet; half-asleep, caffeine deprived and stressed out.

Tapping her fingers with irritation, her eyes flicked up and fell on the small being seated opposite. She cocked her head to the side, a frown spreading across her forehead.

"Hi," she stated curtly, "How did you get in here?"

Crayon in hand, the kid replied softly but surely, "Mr Clark said he will be back in 10 minutes" before returning to his picture.

Lois openly scoffed, "Mr Clark said that, did he?" quietly, she added to herself, "Great, and I bet he expects me to babysit some random kid while he's _out _does he?" she glanced over to the boy and watched him concentrating on his work.

He had the smallest cutest little face and - wait, since when did she fawn over children? Well, maybe since… no, she shouldn't, _couldn't_ think about that. She had spent far too many productive hours as it was, thinking about that. Clearing her head she seated herself at her desk.

A few minutes passed as the little boy continued his masterpiece and Lois shuffled papers needlessly, trying to ignore said small person occupying her partner's chair.

Lightly pursing her lips she gave in to curiosity, "So kiddo, you got a name?"

He looked up shyly, "Daniel."

"Daniel, huh? Do your parents know you're here?" Maybe they were friends of Clarks and this was a favour to them. Typical Smallville, putting other peoples children before his own work.

"I don't have parents. I live in the orphanage."

Ah, that borderline puff piece she'd reassigned to Clark when hard hitting journalism, in the form of dangerous-illegal-activity-of-the-gang-affiliated-kind, had been discovered. He sure knew how to take his work home with him. Although an innocent faced munchkin is certainly more portable than a six foot thug.

"Oh," Lois was temporarily stalled. "So what, you're Smallville's source? Bit young, don't you think."

The kid's expression was blank. "I'm four and a half."

Lois raised an eyebrow.

Earnestly he reassured her, "Four and a half is really big."

Lois laughed, "Right, well if you're so _big_ then why is Clark babysitting you?"

"He's not babysitting me. We're going to see my grandma. She's never met me." Daniel stated innocently.

He had stopped his drawing completely now and was sat dangling his legs off the oversized chair and looking at her with a small smile.

"Oh." Lois repeated lamely. "Okay. Well, good luck kid." More enthusiastically she decided to add, "I bet she'll be thrilled to meet you" Trust Smallville to go above and beyond the story. She shouldn't be surprised really; the guy's heart was about the size of Metropolis.

Lois went back to her computer, which had finished loading. She couldn't deal with a little boy right now; sure he was cute with his big blue eyes and messy black hair, innocent statements, mini plaid shirt and, and – stop. She looked briefly back at the kid. Oh how ridiculous, she could've slapped herself. Smallville does not have a kid. Besides; the squirt was four, and Lana had only been gone two years. Not to mention the polar opposite terms of Clark and one-night-stand.

Still, she couldn't stop looking at his baby face and getting weird butterfly-ish feelings in her stomach. Frustrated she threw her head in her hands.

"It's been 10 minutes. Shouldn't 'Mr Clark' be back by now?"

With military precision, Clark strode in, half the bakery in hand. He looked dishevelled and anxious. His eyes met Lois's. He opened his mouth to speak.

"Smallville!" Lois exclaimed as she abruptly rose out of her seat, "How nice of you to drop in. I was just having a chat here with your pal Daniel. Next time, you might wanna warn a girl when you dump a kid on her watch, okay?"

She removed three donuts from the box under his arm and disappeared, leaving Daniel to his colouring and Clark with his stammered apology still hanging in the air.

Clark sighed for the third time that morning. He was beyond frustrated with Lois. For the last week she hadn't stayed in a room for more than five minutes with him if she didn't have to. Planet meetings involved her strategically placed across the room or close to Perry so conversation was impossible, she had meetings with sources he was sure she'd made up, and Chloe, for once, had heard more out of her than he had. And she was staying tight lipped about it too. All he wanted to know was what he'd done wrong, and all he ever got back was 'Just talk to Lois, Clark!' Well, she wasn't making that very easy was she?

He placed his bags of food on his desk and frowned. Lois hadn't even grabbed the coffee he had bought her. This was throwing him off. He knew he'd screwed up a few weeks ago with his handling of the whole secret thing, but being Lois, she'd been incredibly accepting and understanding and it had seemed to be a relatively minor bump in the road. Things were back on track and suddenly now this, and this he couldn't even understand.

He turned to his much younger companion and forced a smile on his face and Lois out of his head. "Okay Daniel, let's get to work. We've got one grandmother to visit."


End file.
